I have been surprised and disappointed by how much I got sucked into the partisan politics of the election. I think I’ve done a decent job of disconnecting from the endless yammering about inside-DC palace intrigue. DC is what it is because it rewards the people who make it what it is, and that’s not changing anytime soon. I never really held out any hope that Barr and Durham would do anything about the manifest corruption of the federal law enforcement and intelligence communities, because why would they?
Nonetheless, I found myself getting agitated and anxious about the outcome of the election. I think this means that I lost the perspective, the context, that I wanted to be able to hold onto. As ever, one of the Iron Laws provide a touchstone for regaining that perspective.
Note: this was written on Saturday, November 7. The Presidential election and a handful of other national races are still undecided, but whatever the final outcome is, it won’t change my thinking on this topic.
Meaning comes from context.
This election was held in the context of a nation that is ruled (not governed, ruled) mostly by an unaccountable and left-biased administrative state. As an aside, I would be interested to read a knowledgable comparison of present-day America rule with the Chinese mandarinate – I suspect there are substantial parallels. Regardless, the national legislature has largely abdicated its responsibilities to the administrative state. The judiciary has a long-standing doctrine of deferring to the administrative state, and let’s not overlook that its not at all clear that a federal judiciary made up of tenured federal employees is really distinguishable from a civil service made up largely of tenured federal employees.
And Trump has shown that the administrative state has slipped the leash of its nominal immediate supervisor. The administrative state proudly and openly #Resisted the President when they disagreed with him. And, perhaps most disturbingly, so did the military. After four years, the swamp remains.
The election was going to change none of that. The whole point of being governed by a mandarinate administrative state, reinforced by a complicit academic/media entertainment complex, is that it doesn’t answer to or change direction based on who is nominally in charge.
Another context is the growth of government power and scope, and in particular spending. We are on a path to a totipotent federal government, and to currency collapse. Despite a little trimming by Trump around the edges of the administrative state, the growth of government continues unabated, and our spending problem has gotten much worse. The election was going to change none of that.
Yet another context is the urbanization of America. Current American politics heavily favor Democrats in urban areas; whether this is the result of an inherent advantage for leftism in urban areas, I really couldn’t say. Regardless of whether the Democrats are stealing the election in urban areas (which could well be an example of You get more of what you reward, and less of what you punish), they are on the right side of this trend. If not this election, then likely the next one. A four year reprieve isn’t nothing, but it’s not all that much, either.
The final context is that politics is downstream of culture, as a failed dissident once pointed out. Just because he failed doesn’t mean he was wrong. The coronavirus has shown that our culture welcomes micromanagement from our rulers, even to the point of dictating how our family gatherings should be conducted. It is now routine to wear a mask whenever in public, as demanded by our rulers, and a large segment of the public enthusiastically enforces this demand. The election won’t change this cultural shift.
Since the election won’t affect the larger context of rule by the administrative state, the growth of government, a culture of safetyism and demand for government protection from previously tolerated and ordinary risks, or the urbanization of America, why get agitated about it?
Other Iron Laws, I think, only add to the conclusion that this election is really not anything to get our panties bunched up over. I’ll point to one:
Money and power will always find each other.
Money, these days, resides with the Tech Lords, by which I mean the social media quasi-monopolies and the GooglePlex. I’ll admit I was surprised by the speed and enthusiasm with which the Tech Lords joined hands with the legacy media, and amplified and reinforced its control over the information available to the public to favor the Democrats.
Why? The Republicans are making noises about reforming Section 320 of the CDA to expose the Tech Lords to liability for defamation, and to bring anti-trust actions to break up their quasi-monopolies. The Democrats offer continued protection from competition (any antitrust actions against the Tech Lords will die in a Biden administration) and defamation (there will be no Section 230 reform as long as the Democrats can block it). For the Tech Lords, this was an insurance policy; I doubt they had much to worry about from the administrative state anyway, but having demonstrated their power and usefulness, who knows what further deals might be struck? If you are looking around for the cronyism of this Iron Law, look no further.
And I really don’t think the election was going change any of that. So why get agitated about the election?
Where does that leave me?
This election, however it turns out, won’t change much. So I am going to try to regain the amused detachment from most of the political to-and-fro. Its mostly a distraction, bread and circuses for the news and social media addicts.
The real question, which should be occupying my mental space, is how do I navigate the context I describe above? Some of this context I have already laid plans for; our assets are as insulated as I think they can be from the ruinous taxation heading our way. Weathering the currency collapse, I need to give some more thought to. Also, for the moment, I am going to lay plans to emigrate as a search for a context that I find more congenial.
What I won’t be doing is devoting much energy to American politics, whether supporting any party or politician (pointless, in context), any movement for a national divorce (a fantasy, in my view, which if it were to happen would be so catastrophic I would emigrate anyway), or any movement that attempts to fundamentally restructure our government, electoral processes or anything else (they are what they are because of a context which is what it is, and won’t change absent some catastrophic shock).
Finally, I have been interested in some of the references to Stoicism here; I’m going to follow up on that.
Damn it feels good to be a Firster…
As long as you donate your firsts, and don’t tax them.
I recently read through The Daily Stoic and the wisdom there was very helpful to me in these crazy times. I plan to read more of the stoics.
Stoicism goes with everything.
Stoicism is ketchup? [ducks and runs]
sriracha get with the times old man
or did we move on from sriracha already?
Sriracha is so 2015.
And have you looked at the sugar content?
someone has their panties in a twist
Stoics are nihilist that refuse to embrace the suck.
Serious response to a joking comment: Stoicism is the recognition that men are not gods and the acceptance of that limitation. Nihilism is mankind surrendering to its most evil impulses. Some degree of stoicism is a necessary, although not a sufficient, condition for wisdom and virtue. Nihilism is a steep downhill slope into the abyss.
I struggle with realizing stoicism, and generally fail to achieve any trace of serenity. I am tempted by nihilism, but so far have managed to refuse to give in to it.
I balance my nihilism with hedonism, like balancing my alcohol consumption with coffee. I never said I live a healthy lifestyle.
Do hedonistic nihilists want to rape the world before setting it on fire?
Before or after, either works.
Relevent.
Finally, I have been interested in some of the references to Stoicism here; I’m going to follow up on that. – stoicism is good and all but it wont get you laid on a Saturday night, particularly i a pandemic
It will help you accept that bitter reality since you only control your judgements.
It will help you accept that bitter reality – so does scotch and it tastes better
Pie sleeps like a baby on Saturday night, couched in the scent of scotch, some worn-out Romanian cooze, and the knowledge that American soldiers keep Putin off his doorstep.
Nostrovia!
but it wont get you laid on a Saturday night
Thankfully, the stoic can find better things to do.
better things to do. – there are better things to do?
Sophisticated Europeans: booze and pussy, but they don’t eat a bunch of sugar, so they got that goin for them.
So why get agitated about the election?
Because we haven’t accepted in our hearts that this country is over. Seeing one of our most valued processes openly turned into a fraud, along with Orwellian lies to not believe our eyes… it hurts even cynics like me. And it gives me a real worry for my son and any future grandkids.
Once you get over that hump, the anxiety ebbs. Not that you can’t ever get caught up in it again, but like the losing team down 30 in the 4th quarter, whether or not this specific drive goes the right way doesn’t mean much.
Why is it so hard to believe Trump lost, particularly when the progressive wave lost as well? Is that a judgment you just can’t fathom? Trump underperformed in my county – and you can hardly blame that on Democrat shenanigans, as it is Republican top to bottom.
Trump over performed based on vote counts in a number of places. The states with the strictest mail in ballot laws, Florida and Ohio, went strongly in Trump’s corner.
The voter turnout numbers alone indicate fraud. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are ridiculously over the top. These are North Korean style numbers being reported.
Then there is the complete lop sided nature of the ballots being counted after election day.
Again, he underperformed in my county – no Dem shenanigans here. The local infrastructure is all run by Repubs.
And that’s one county you haven’t even named.
Trump had mathematically won Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania on election night until you started to see ridiculous numbers of mail in ballots appear after all three had said they were going to stop counting for the night. In all three, you have ridiculously high turnout rates in the big cities. In many cases, over 100% of the registered vote. And they went more for Biden than placecs like San Francisco.
These are all obvious red flags we use to identify fraud in foreign elections.
Exactly. Trump had comfortable leads in 4 swing states when they all four mysteriously stopped counting and then didn’t resume counting until 3 hours later in the wee hours of the morning following mysterious dumps of tens of thousands of ballots all for Biden. The whole thing is just absurd.
It’s absurd to me that I have to continuously answer why I think there was fraud. Like, really, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have impossibly high voter turnout, BIden gets more of the black vote than Obama in Detroit and I have to keep justifying why I think this is suspicious?
York Co, PA – Trump dropped 4 points and turnout was much larger (anecdotally, haven’t seen official numbers) from ’16 to ’20. Similar things happened in many very red counties across the state.
Also Trump performed better in Philadelphia county this year over ’16 by a couple of points.
Where are you getting your numbers? Because from what I’m seeing, Trump gained 15k votes in York County and gained 61.5% of the vote compared to 61.8 in ’16.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-elections/pennsylvania-results
https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2016/results/pennsylvania
Interesting. This was my source…
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/09/this-map-shows-how-biden-won-back-pennsylvania-in-the-2020-election.html
Alright per York County (for 16) and PA State (for 20 – in progress)…
Trump went from 128,528 to 143,415
Democrat (Hillary/Biden) from 68,524 to 85,491
The 3rd party vote dropped off from ’16 to ’20 and is in the noise realm for the most part (nowhere near the spread).
Clearly, Trump gained, but less than Biden did over Hillary.
A couple of things.
1) from other posts here it seems like he didn’t underperform as badly as you think.
2) The GOP can perform the vote counting, but how does that keep the Dems from submitting a lot of fraudulent mail in ballots? If the ballot was harvested how can the counter tell? I don’t think the GOP running the local infrastructure entirely precludes fraud. Hopefully it would slow it down a bit.
I always thought it was going to be a close race. Once again both candidates were bad choices. What makes me suspicious is the same thing that happened in the Franken race. Every time an adjustment was made or a new batch of ballots were found, it only went in one direction: Biden’s. I’ll admit that isn’t proof of fraud, but it sure is interesting that it never, ever seems to go in the other direction.
This is why I found the “Trump lost but downballot won, thus fraud” argument so weak. There are people who skipped the presidential election. There are people who voted only for Biden because they hate Trump.
Notwithstanding fraud, Trump the person lost this election. Trump the petty, juvenile, thin-skinned egomaniac ginned up just as much disgust as Hillary did in 2016, and there are wide swaths of the electorate who look no deeper than “who feels more presidential”. Trump, as a campaign theme, should have toned it down like 70%. He should’ve played the Tony Romo role, dispassionately making easy prediction after easy prediction about how the media was going to treat him and treat Biden, and laughing a knowing chuckle when it all comes true. Both sides wanted the election to be a referendum on Trump, and he’s too despicable of a person to win that election.
If it turns out that Trump pulled this election off when you strip away the obvious fraud, it doesn’t change the fact that a large number (millions) of voters either stayed home, didn’t vote the top line, or voted Biden because Trump is an excreble human being.
There are other issues at play that make the eventual dawning of Progressive Era 2: Wokelectric Boogaloo inevitable, but this election has thoroughly disproved the narrative that you can’t win by running against somebody.
I’m really not sure were you getting that information. Part of the reason the fraud is so obvious in those cities is they had to make up massive amounts of votes to get Biden over the top.
The fact is, some of those cities are still pretending to be counting votes in an attempt to run out the clock on recounts. Once the recounts start, a lot of the shenanigans will be even more obvious.
I don’t discount fraud existing or fraud being widespread. I do discount the idea that Trump somehow won in a landslide that was overcome by fraud and that he couldn’t possibly underperform the downballot candidates.
I’m walking a tightrope here. Trump the politician was uniquely situated to win this election because of his aggressive approach toward the leftist institutions. As I wrote in my article last week, I wouldn’t have gotten off the couch to vote for a Romney or a Bush, and I’m not alone. However, Trump the person was uniquely situated to underperform in this election because he’s a petty asshole and detestable to normals.
Typical TDS rant: lots of invective with not one hint of a demonstrable fact to back it up.
Name some things that he actually did to earn all that invective and I’ll listen.
Who said he “earned” it?
Irrelevant. The vast majority of voters don’t care about proof. They care about their feels.
I think Trump being an egomaniac and a bit juvenile are clearly demonstrated by almost 40 years of Trump’s public life. Petty and thin-skinned depend more on how you view his responses to criticism, which I will grant you he received to an extent beyond anyone in American public life.
Are you really going to stand there and tell me that Trump isn’t thin-skinned and an egomaniac?
Are you going to tell me it’s raining too?
What crossed the line was calling Trump an execrable human being.
Ok, it is perfectly fair if you and Homple disagree with the characterization, but to say that execreble is crossing the line ignores literally hundreds of equivalent and far worse insults used here every day about other public figures.
No, I’m saying that he isn’t thin-skinned and egomaniacal enough to make him an execrable person. There need to be some real deeds, actions or omissions, to convince me that he is execrable.
I expect no such evidence is forthcoming, but we are all entitled to our feelz based on nothing but our feelz.
So what exactly distinguishes Trump from Pelosi?
Other than Pelosi being nakedly corrupt and from a nakedly corrupt family that was in bed with the Mafia?
You guys missed the point completely. I omitted all of the “socalled” and “what they think is…”
The perception was that Trump was and is undeniably evil, corrupt, abrasive and petty. I agree with some of that, I disagree with some of that. Its 100% fact that people voted against that caricature.
I think on its face the idea that Biden could legit win the election is not beyond possibility. Besides the literal case that neither party has a lock on the Presidency in any election, in this particular election there is enough discontentment with the status quo and Trump particularly to push ole gropey Joe over the line. I also don’t think the country is “over” if he and Harris win any more than it was when FDR or LBJ won. That doesn’t mean things will get better but there’s a lot more going on than just one office (which, as R.C. Dean notes, is increasingly not in charge of the bureaucracy anyway).
But I think it’s quite possible that local and state officials and party operatives could create enough fraudulent and questionable ballots to “ensure” his victory. Election security is, in general, woeful in this country, and it is difficult to reform because of entrenched interests, the bizarre accusations of racist intent behind every proposed election security measure, and the decentralized nature of national elections, which are really 50 separate state-managed elections rolled into one “event”.
Oh, and there’s DC in the mix too. While the allocation of its 3 electoral votes is never really in doubt, there’s also a political machine in that state which has more control over the downballot votes than the Presidential ones.
It’s possible to believe both that Trump lost, and that fraud occurred. Regardless of the outcome, whether fraud should be investigated does not hinge on whether fraud would have changed it.
I think fraud goes on frequently and deeply around the country, probably on both sides. The “both sides now” part is one reason that it won’t be adequately investigated nor rooted out. So we will continue to endorse elections, which are fraudulent to varying degrees, until they become less and less representative of the will of electorate, and more a construct of the power structure itself.
One could consider the fact that we are only presented with candidates from basically two major parties, and the construction of the whole system by those same parties, as a type of fraud. The fact that third and fourth and fifth parties are allowed to compete only highlights the vast advantages the two majors have.
“Why is it so hard to believe Trump lost”
Because he won the bellwether counties, he won the FL/OH combo, his party picked up House seats, state house seats, and governor ships. In American politics, you don’t do those things and then somehow magically just fall behind enough in 4 corrupt cities that have a brand new tool of fraud in the mail in ballot that they never had before 2020.
I would 100% believe the result if Biden won the bellwether counties, won FL or OH, won more House seats, won state house seats, governorships, etc. The bellwether counties especially are demographic microcosms of America, which is exactly why they are bellwethers. It flies in the face of everything that is true about American elections for Biden to get killed in the bellwethers but somehow squeak out a win.
just fall behind
He underperformed in plenty of PA counties. I posted that already. It is absurd to declare all of them to be subservient to fucking Philly.
Who the hell knows? I would readily believe Trump lost if the election were conducted in a fair and honest manner.
But this isn’t about Trump anymore, this is about whether or not the people retain power over the government in any way at all.
^Exactly this. Trump is irrelevant to the main issue.
Then make the argument that election integrity IS the issue and not that it cost Trump victory.
I’m not sure where I haven’t.
Sorry, but the general argument from most is Trump lost because of fraud. So I wasn’t tracking you in particular.
Well, the unfortunate reality is that unless someone shows harm, nothing will happen. The aggrieved party here is Trump. I am interested in his pursuit of winning simply because unless he does pursue it, the fraud will not be pursued either.
Just because I haven’t made one in a while.
Cool meme, but that doesn’t at all counter what I said.
Bellwether counties are used in political science precisely because they function as an indicator of the country as a whole, and do so reliably. When you have, as one guy on Twitter did the other day (account has been deleted by Twitter since, fun fun), a set of 30 counties that has an 80% hitrate for the winner going back to 1960, and for 2020 they went 80-20 Trump, that’s an enormous red flag.
If you’re a blackjack dealer, and you end up with 18, 19, 17, 20 and every time you do that the guy sitting at the table has 19, 20,18,21 you don’t just congratulate him on his look, you push the little button under your table that summons the pit boss.
Well, first of all, the standard of proof to call the pit boss is lower than what the courts will demand to prove fraud.
Second, bellwether as used here is a descriptive statistic. Deviations from descriptive statistics are not proof of anything. To make the case that a statistical anomaly has occurred, you’d have to pull in predictive statistics. And to do that, you have to make assumptions about the underlying distribution, the level of confidence that’s acceptable, the model that best represents the mechanism you’re studying, and of course whether it is acceptable to use frequentist methods, Bayesian methods, or both. Suffice it to say there’s enough wiggle room that anyone with enough time can probably “prove” both cases: that this outcome is statistically likely and also that it is statistically unlikely.
This is an indicator, and indicators are useful, but they’re not proof.
one guy on Twitter
So this one troll, down in the sewer says…
Why is it so hard to believe Trump lost
There is extensive evidence showing massive and widespread fraud on part of the Dems. Not conjecture, guesses, or what-ifs but thousands of smoking guns that leave no doubt massive election rigging was committed. My guess is the enormity of it is what finally swung the GOP behind Trump after days of sitting on the sidelines.
Just off the top of my head, there is video evidence, sworn affidavits from participants, and just pure identified fraud that I don’t know what to call (dead people voting). That doesn’t even get into the voting machine software that appears converted tens of thousands of votes from Trump to Biden in key districts.
And you ignore that Trump didn’t perform as well in some counties as he did in ’16.
There may be fraud, it may also be debatable that the fraud cost Trump the election. It is the latter aspect that is a fucking article of religious faith.
I don’t know what that has to do with anything. Neither did Biden compared to Hilary in 16. Generally when someone commits a crime, we hold them responsible for the consequences of that crime. It should be assumed that Trump won and that the Dems need to prove that their massive election fraud would not have altered the outcome. I have no idea why the burden of proof should be put on the victim instead of the perpetrator.
Whether Trump would have won in a fair election or not (and I believe he would based on the dominating lead he enjoyed in virtually? every state until the Dem controlled states suddenly and inexplicably paused counting in the middle of the night), the widespread documented fraud by the Dems should result in a default forfeit for Biden unless they can prove otherwise.
I have no idea why the burden of proof should be put on the victim instead of the perpetrator.
To clarify, I’m referring to consequences and not evidence of the crime being committed. A victim’s family/prosecutor absolutely needs to be able to prove that the meth head tweaker fired the gun that killed Jim. If the defense wants to argue Jim died of a heart attack and not the bullet so that the consequence of the crime doesn’t matter, that’s on the defense to prove.
Generally when someone commits a crime, we hold them responsible for the consequences of that crime.
Sounds like a Democrat in the years 2016-19, talking about Trump. Which is my fucking point – don’t be like that.
Unclear why you are coming at me with the ad hominem. A key difference is there was absolutely zero evidence of any fraud by Trump in 2016. There are reams of it showing the Dems committed widespread fraud in 2020.
I kind of agree with you, in that Biden might have still won. But even if it was a total landslide, there are enough red flags that need to be investigated. I want to see fraudsters going to jail and systems changing so that 2 and 4 years from now, people aren’t making the same complaints. And I dont want both sides cheating.
It might not change anything this time, but it is important.
robc, I am pretty much with you here. I want fraud investigated and prosecuted to the max. I don’t particularly care if it affects the outcome of this, or any particular, election, but the fear/expectation of fraud has to be stamped out. The only way of doing this is, in my opinion, doing two things:
1. Rooting fraud out in a very public manner
2. Creating a robust and fraud- and error-resistant election process that is open and accountable, and auditable.
Those two things should be expectations.
Do I have hope that they will happen? Sure. However, election fraud (or its specter) is a wonderful tool for politicians and their parties to use to create fear and distrust of their opponents. It’s like the jokes “Republicans fearful that the Supreme Court will once and for all overturn Roe v. Wade and end legalized abortion, removing their most potent campaigning lever” and “Democrats fearful that the Supreme Court will once and for all affirm the Second Amendment, removing their most potent campaigning lever” and their inverses.
This guy doesn’t sound worried.
My greatest hope, both for our nation and for my own self-interest, is that Trump leaves office and starts a media empire to replace Fox News. In this endeavor he brings support to the one person who, though they have disagreements on policy, played ball with Trump the entire time. So Trump uses this new media empire to build a following for…Rand Paul 2024!
*to
replace Fox Newsimprove the market share of Twitter/Youtube alternatives(ok, and TV news too, I guess. How long till that audience dies out? This is my news source, so I don’t care, w/e. Where’s my fucking popcorn…)
I won’t do either alternative Twitter or alternative Youtube. I don’t like those formats and never have.
I meant for the people that doodoo on Twitter. Or it could just die, that’d be fine too.
The Hat and the Curly Hair?
Th Hair isn’t a merkin! Oh, you were referring to Rand…
Ah, a new cult of personality. Is there an Iron Law on that?
build a following for…Rand Paul 2024!
Tell me, in this fantasy world, do you also get vigorous but heartfelt hummers from 80’s Elle McPherson? I like me some Rand, but that dude is never gonna be president.
It’s pretty obvious from the corruption of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies maid plain by the Russian collusion hoax that there is an awful lot wrong with the country’s governance that will never be fixed by a few more talking heads.
not governed, ruled
not that I feel a need to be throttled by my fellow man, either, but it’d be an improvement I guess.
If that were a twitter pun, you’d’ve been ratio’d pretty hard.
The problem with what is generally known as the West is that people have the impression of fair elections or an honest state. We Eastern Europeans have no such delusions.
That YouTube disclaimer on political videos reminds me of PSAs on Mexican radio stations, both in English and Spanish. “Every vote counts, make your voice heard”, yada. I’m sure average Mexicans roll their eyes at hearing that.
Mexico has to play shit in English? That makes me feel a little better.
This guy is on to something
I don’t know about Election interferons!11!! He wasn’t here in 2016 when Rusha stole our Elekshun!11!!!
Amazon keeps sending out these mailers advertizing jobs earning “up to $16.35/hr” with “no resume or experience required”, but doesn’t say anything about the type of work.
“Want to Try Amazon Warehouse HD? Only $16.35/mo”
Every fucking time I open Music, wtf.
they don’t care as long as you do it for 16.35 or less
Backbreaking, monotonous, and tedious is a good bet.
I’ve heard that it’s very micromanaged, too.
Aka, Work. Get the fuck over it.
Or kill yourself.
Take a Valium maybe and relax.
The Amazon warehouse in Shakopee, MN (suburb of Mpls) is a lightening rod for all sorts of progressive posturing. There are a ton of Somalis working those jobs because they can make pretty good money there. It is hard work, but you can make $40K pretty easily despite coming from a shithole country with nothing and not many skills.
However, there are about 10-15 progressive union organizer wannabees among those Somalis who are always bitching about something. Basically they are trying to shake down Amazon for as much as they think they can get. So far Amazon has called their bluff. It has been amusing to see that the long hyped walk out ends up with 10-15 Somalis (the agitators) and no one else. The vast majority of those other Somalis keep on working.
Anti-union! Evil! But also for the good of the
Reichcountry! Because you might catch covid if you leave your house!Would you rather they be honest about it?
“Suck dick on camera. $16.35/hr. No experience needed.”
You have the choice of eating pussy, but it’s also attached to a man. You shitlord.
Getting pretty tired of amazon across the board. Unhooked the firetv, got out the sparePC for TV purposes. Sick of searching for “product” by name and getting every clone of that product in the results but not the actual product, which IS available on amazon, but I have to click through 3 similar products to find it. Most recent update to the desktop Music program is making me consider deafness as an option.
And the fucking reading suggestions with nonstop covers featuring Hillary and Biden and every other fucking liberal cause du jour. My kindle library consists of the Dune and Wheel of Time series, A Brief History of Time, and a book about companion planting. That’s it. I haven’t read a book in years. Show me the fucking algorithm that made any of those connections. Oh yeah, “Anything -> Hillary, Biden, Green Energy, Gay Marriage….”. Real Algorithmic. Fuckwads.
Sick of searching for “product” by name and getting every clone of that product in the results but not the actual product, which IS available on amazon, but I have to click through 3 similar products to find it.
Yes! Its especially bad in the electronics space. Do you want the UBIWAN or the Zenschorb or the BABALEN or the SunnyWing or the Metlod7 brand?
I love how it will just ignore “made in the usa” as a search element, even when it’s one of the suggestions when typing. Here’s 50,000 chinese made items that don’t match the search!
I do find it puzzling that they haven’t added where it’s made to the summary. Almost every item I see someone asking “where is this made?”
Hint, hint.
I think people who make and sell things have noticed popular sentiment turning against certain countries of origin, but are too invested there.
One particular seller avoided any mention on their product page, website, and packaging. They hid the legally required tag deep inside the product itself just so they were technically compliant.
Thats a really good point. I don’t know why people ask where it’s made because it is always in the description, but they do. Also, I bought some wheel spacers for my truck. Nearly every week i get an email asking if I can answer this question and it’s always does this fit so so vehicle and year. You can add your vehicle to Amazon and search for products that fit your vehicle you feebs.
It is not always in the description.
In fact, it is so rarely in the description that I end up having to research the manufacturers in great detail to try to narrow down the probability of it being from any given place.
I haven’t had that issue, but to be fair I mostly buy books and cheap things I don’t care where they are made from Amazon.
There’s a lot of false and manipulated entries on Amazon, too. I once searched for something, clicked a promising entry, and found it had stellar reviews, but digging into the review content it was clear the product being reviewed was not the product being sold (like, not even the same category of product; akin to “this is the best paper towel I’ve ever used” on a product page for cat food). A more subtle example is when the product gets good reviews in its initial form but then a new “version” comes out that is way cheaper to make but piggybacks off the existing product entry and commands the same high price as the original higher quality version. If you’re not the first guy to get screwed by this, usually someone will have reviewed it recently and called it out, but you have to dig for those reviews sometimes. Then there’s the cases of used-sold-as-new and the rando low-quality sellers that get promoted and selected by default when buying otherwise trustworthy product entries.
At least when I go to Target or the wasteland that is my local Walmart and I can find what I want on the shelf, I know I’m getting what I’m looking at.
When I shop I tend to google around for reviews from trusted places.
Like, for example I go to America’s Test Kitchen and buy their best reviewed chef’s knife from Amazon.
Yep, that’s a good way to do it. Also, I find that orders fulfilled by Amazon are less at risk for this fly by night bullshit.
The only things I am sure of are death and taxes.
I am sure of nothing
So why get agitated about the election?
Because things are getting worse, and Biden’s election is an indicator that they’re going to get worse faster.
It’s easier to prepare for a currency collapse when your president isn’t using the considerable power of the state to fuck with people she doesn’t like.
^this
If the Blue Wave had happened as the progressives hoped for, I’d be far more concerned. But Biden and a counter-tide in Congress and the states – not so much.
True. It can always be worse.
And it will be.
I think there is a bi-partisan consensus on that.
And that’s different than the past 4 years how?
He was a “he”?
Ivanka was always the power behind the throne.
…owning…owning the libs?
Ivanka can fuck with me anytime.
I believe the argument would be that for the past four years, you had an apparatus of state that was actively blocking the guy at the top trying to use its power. Under the following administration, they’ll gleefully go along because they agree with the man/woman at the top.
I’m not very convinced by the “Biden is a shadow candidate for Socialism”. He may throw a crumb or two in their direction, but Biden is, has been and always will be the Man of the Big Banks and the War machine. Look at his funding. Look at the “GOP but i support Biden” folks. This is Bush/Bama 2020.
Not good, but also not “Bernie/Warren”
It’s funny that you think senile Joe will actually be calling the shots.
So your argument is that the Progressives, in a fit of brilliant conniving, moved heaven and earth to block Bernie Sanders from getting the nod, and pushed Joe Biden on the throne so that they could then rule through him as a puppet?
No, Even if it’s not Joe Biden calling the shots, the “puppetmaster” is no friend of the progressives.
^^^ THIS
Well, we’re going to find out, aren’t we?
Who the fuck knows what Biden is, believes in, or will do anymore. Ditto Kamala. They both have political records that were utterly irrelevant to their (possible) success except in the most abstract way, neither had to answer for anything they ever actually did politically before 2020, and both got to campaign on unicorns and fairy tales. It’s Obama redux.
They probably will be establishment through-and-through, with all the shittiness that entails, but trying to nail down some fixed about either of them is impossible.
This
The idealistic young socialists are different from but not scarier to me than the technocratic transnational progressives. Socialism is evil, so is the global technocratic bureaucracy.
I agree. It would probably be better for us if Bernie had won the election than Biden, because there would not be a broad consensus in the Congress to go along with his most extreme tendencies, whereas the foreign policy moves of the establishment are… established.
Why? Because I have a daughter and a son. It’s hard to stomach the thought of leaving things worse than when they were born.
Well, I’m going to have to destroy this short blue ethernet cable.
I had switched to it because it was shorter and would have less clutter, but for some reason I was only getting 9 mbits/second. I swapped back to the longer cable and it jumped to 90mbits/sec. Must be an older cable standard.
Ugh, I’m facing occasional wireless connection issues in my home office and looking at 100′ or more of ethernet cable to correct it. I *really* don’t want to go down that route.
I don’t do wireless if I can avoid it.
If only that wisdom were more common…
I had wireless cameras but got tired of changing batters so I ran Cat6 POE cameras with a home DVR. So much better.
If you have a spare old phone line between the office and your router room, you can use VDSL modems. I do that between buildings since there was already a buried phone line. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BOD8C9W/ I get very acceptable speeds with this.
I have phone lines that look like they haven’t been used in 40 or 50 years… no idea if they work.
The longer cable explicitly says cat-5e, the shorter blue one is unlabelled.
But it is ‘ethernet’ cable and arrived promplyly. Do the kindly. Like ant subsrip. Many new Amercn products!
You’re not rolling your own cat6? For shame, UCS.
I rarely need new cabling.
Must be an older cable standard.
A cable that can’t handle 100 Mbps would be at least 20 years old. That’s category 3, telephone-grade cable which frankly few people would ever have with 8P8C connectors (as opposed to the 4P4C or 6P4C/6P6C used by actual telephones).
(this is based on the standard alone; you probably just have a defective cable that is was supposed to be built to a higher standard)
It’s got an abnormally low twist rate for the wires. I think it came as a provided cable in some other product. But there’s no way it’s two decades old.
Hmm, yeah provided cables are a different story. I wouldn’t be all that surprised if it really was no better than Cat3, though low-grade AND defective is a distinct possibility too.
Interesting article. Pretty much agree with it. The most prominent reminder for me that politics is fucked up occurred today. My brother informed me that he won’t attend Thanksgiving at my mother’s house if I’m there, because a few months ago I told him I don’t wear a mask. So he cut me out of his life for that heresy against the religion of Leftism.
No dissent allowed.
That sucks. Sorry your brother is an ass.
How will he eat turkey with a mask on?
The mask has to be on between bites, and that is in no way arbitrary and unsanitary.
That’s fucked up. I’m sorry.
My rule is basically the honor system. If you’re sick don’t bring your ass over and you don’t have to wear a mask at my house.
The girlfriend’s aunt has said that she wouldn’t come to any Thanksgiving because we did some traveling inside the state in July.
OFFS
All within the State, and nothing outside of the State?
So, your mother chose you, right? She didn’t side with the brother?
why would she side with a gutless coward?
This is why I host. My house, my rules. Pants. Off. Now.
I do my best work sans culottes.
what a pussy.
Your brother is doing his part.
And in shitty news for Trump, his retained law firm of Jones and Frank is leaking to the NYT that they aren’t happy with the lawsuits and he owes them some money.
The reality is most likely that they are frightened of the Trump Accountability Project and the general fascistic desire of the left to punish anyone who crosses them.
In a just world, the entire firm would be disbarred for breaking attorney-client privilege.
Sorry, that should be Jones Day, I work with a firm called Jones and Frank on occasion.
I’m guessing there’s some internal conflict within Jones Day about this, and it wouldn’t shock me if it was some underling leaking this info. For those who don’t know, Jones Day is a multi-thousand lawyer global big law firm.
Children of the Corn.
The youngsters want to drive out all the wrong thinkers. Everywhere.
Most likely. There ought to be some serious in-house cleaning after this bullshit.
Politics or no, breaking attorney client privilege for personal (or political) gain gets you shitcanned and hauled up in front of the state bar disciplinary committee.
Big threat to a para-legal.
Most paralegals aren’t stupid enough to pull a stunt like that. Many associate attorneys are.
My fear is that that’s no longer true. No psychologist got struck off for diagnosing Trump remotely. Principles can be abandoned quite easily without any negative impact on anyone’s career – you may even be praised for your bravery.
Other than the fact that I’m a foreigner, the reason I couldn’t get too worked up about your election is that I’m pretty black-pilled* about what is now the dominant ideology amongst the metropolitan types that run the world.
It’s not bias – they viscerally believe they are in the right. If Twitter were just biased then they’d cover themselves occasionally by throwing a Democrat under the bus. They whole-heartedly believe that their co-religionists are honest and their opponents are liars to be censored. They don’t understand why that might be a tendentious interpretation of “good faith”.
This isn’t even a left-right thing, necessarily. From that NYMag article on the NYT ESB was busily quoting Rawls on everyone being individually a philosophy. But she got slapped down by someone more in tune with the new religion.
BLM showed how much they control, and it’ll only get worse. Tomorrow belongs to them. Trump getting re-elected or not is irrelevant when the core ethos of the sinecured class is as it is.
* I hate myself for using this phrase. And yes, in reality off the internet most people are fine and the barbarians are not at the gates and life goes on.
Given the way that strategy has gone at most other companies, I’m not sure that’s such a great thing to wish for.
Ga. voters getting suspicious phone calls
OAN certainly knows how to hire.
I don’t know. The acting was pretty poor and I don’t like being led by the nose from the right anymore than I do the left.
Yeah, I can’t stand OAN or Newsmax anymore than MSNBC or CNN.
I don’t get why you watch with the sound on.
I took a week long break from politics after the election. Even from here. It was good. I had to take a step back and realize how fixated i had become on something that ultimately i have 0 control over. It wasn’t about “watching for the lulz” and i had become far too invested in a candidate i didn’t even vote for.
Sometimes taking a break and reflecting is a good thing. It made me remember what is true and important in life and what really matters.
BEING ON THE WINNING TEAM AND CRUSHING THOSE PANSY-ASS LOSERS!!!!!!!!
oh, was there a different answer?
Close
A friend’s riff on that is “hear the wailing of their bean-counters”; guess he doesn’t like accountants.
#metoo Hadn’t voted in a pres election since, maybe 04 or 08, and just one local election. Hadn’t voted for any R since ’92;, never voted for a D; I voted for the Trumpster, just thinking he could slow the slide. Yeah, individual liberty is probably gone in the near future. I will do what I can to preserve it; don’t know what that will actually be besides my own civil disobedience of just doing what I believe is morally correct and if it is illegal trying not to get caught. Like right now my civil disobedience is not wearing the fucking mask!
I also have been reading the stoics, it helps.
And this is opening weekend for gun shooting the whitetails; going glamping and drinking for four days, no cell service, no tv, taking a CD player so I ain’t even listening to the radio! Should be fun
Hmm. I would make the augment that i don’t know if they are “left-biased” as much as the left is culturally dominant, so they go with the flow. The number 1 thing with these people is that they retain power. For example look at all the Never Trumpers. They claimed to be “conservatives” for years, and then when they get bucked out of the party, the immedieatly go and take over the Dems. Which is what has happened. The DNC had an internal power struggles and the Progressives have flat out lost, and the Neo-Conservatives won. On matters of domestic policy, i really don’t think they give much of a shit, as long as it means they get to retain power.
Advisor to Biden Dick Cheney and Cabinet Secretary of Health and Human Services Mitt Romney say you are correct.
If that comes to pass, I’m going to rub it in my lefty friends’ faces from now to the end of time.
The neocons are shiftless Trotskyites. They’ve found a temporary home in the Democratic Party but I question how long they last or, at least, remain in charge of foreign policy there.
Their foreign policy agenda serves the Democrats well. it’s where they initially started, after all. It presents plenty of opportunities for graft. In an age where politicians must be seen doing something about a problem, even if the something is terrible, they always have an arrogantly self-assured answer. They promote foreign policy led by careerists at the state department so the bureaucracy is on board.
Everyone the Democrats care about wins.
That’s all well and true until 1968 happens again. The establishment Democrats love them some war and aggressive foreign policy but the young radicals most definitely do not. Who knows if the whole 60s-70s dynamic will repeat but the Dem coalition depends on a lot of votes that don’t align with neocon tendencies.
What i see like now (and keep in mind everything is dynamic, so ebbs and flows, but in general _now_), the technocratic wing of the Dems have allied with the Neo-cons as a general Technocracic party. This is why you get so much “expert” worship (as long as they are the right experts) and IFLS. Dems have mad their base on a group of people who’s driving personality aspiration is to feel smarter than other people around them. And they do that by agreeing with everything the “experts” have said. This is how you get people to go along with War etc by showing them that all the expert diplomats and generals agree.
Right now there isn’t any real Anti-War party in the US. The GOP is leaning that way, but it isn’t a big tenant of the party.
“The establishment Democrats love them some war and aggressive foreign policy but the young radicals most definitely do not”
I wish that were true. Remember, they have been imbibing RUSSIA RUINED THE HER ELECTION AND GAVE US BAD ORANGE MAN. I think they will enthusiastically favor confrontation with Russia in Syria and the Ukraine. Remember, that was a constant talking point in the election, the whole LEader of the Free World thing. They will march to Zhtomyr and Aleppo with a song on their lips.
Well, not them themselves. No no no no they have college to finish. But the sons of the deplorables, they must be punished for their insolence.
Why do conservatives/libertarians keep joining the military? We haven’t had a legitimate war in forever.
Teenagers join the military; that they end up conservative or libertarian is more of an outcome than an input.
Maybe for Clinton, but not for Biden or even Harris. LBJ was carrying on Kennedy’s legacy and they still turned on him.
The antiwar left was against the Vietnam War because it was a war against communists. They have no objection whatsoever against war against “the right”. That goes back to the French Revolution. The left has been enthusiastic supporters of war against the forces of reaction, or tradition, or conservatism however vaguely defined.
Remember Wilson only about faced on WWI when the Tsar fell and he could justify it as a Grand Crusade for Democracy. FDR lied through his teeth in the 1940 election campaign as he plotted to drag the country into war against the will of the voters.
If whoever is pulling Biden’s strings decides we have to Liberate the Ukraine, the left will be absolutely cheering it from the rooftops. They will explicitly talk about Wilson and FDR’s great crusades for democracy and freedom.
So I am going to try to regain the amused detachment from most of the political to-and-fro. Its mostly a distraction, bread and circuses for the news and social media addicts.
As long as there is a mask on every face I see, that will be impossible.
Which is why they fought so hard to make it so.
“Just wear the damn swastika!” Fuck the world.
Where I am in Florida, it’s pretty much all businesses mandating the mask. Complicates things a bit when your only real recourse to not wearing it is to fall back on claiming protections under the ADA.
Last weekend I was up in NW Minnesoda hunting with the family.
I ran to the gas station to fill up. On my way in to pay, I realized I had forgotten to get my mask so I muttered and turned around to go back and get it. A worker who was outside snorted and said “don’t sweat it, just go pay.” She said it with the sublime condescension that only a local in a tourist trap of a town can come up with when dealing with touristas.
It was an awesome twofer. Realized that there is some sanity left in the world and got to relive a bit of my teen age years mocking dumb tourists.
Just this last weekend in Very rural West Virginia, I went to a gas station up in the hills. There was a sign out side that said only 2 customers in the store at once and masks are required. There were 4 customers in the store and not a mask was in site (including the staff, who was making food as well).
They also had a sign on the door that read “Do not sell drugs on premises.”
I don’t make my customers nor my employees wear masks in the store nor am I going to. We wear masks if we have to deliver equipment.
Sorry to go OT and personal – I heard from the bank. They’re done with their dickery and I make settlement on Friday! Woohoo!
Yay!
Congrats.
Congratulations!
Personal is a welcome reminder that reality exists outside of the soap opera of politics. If only there were more sexy politicians with evil identical twins though.
Rand and AOC?
Congratulations!
In 15 minutes is a FedSoc debate on regulation of social media companies. Hot topic here in the gliberdome, too. Linky
Mea culpa for linking to Nothing But Flowers earlier. Rightthink ’88. I just like the song.
(Song has fun irony; video is nauseous.)
I would make the augment that i don’t know if they are “left-biased” as much as the left is culturally dominant, so they go with the flow.
I think it’s an issue of self-selection. People who believe in the power of government to Do Good go into government. To… you know.. serve their fellow man.
Other people get jobs.
I felt the disconnect many years ago, about the time I couldn’t understand why, in spite of changing presidents/administrations, nothing ever got better, always worse. Slowly drifted into a different thought mode and eventually discovered libertarianism. I realized 40 years ago that being a ‘good citizen’ and voting were not compatible.
The downhill speed seems to have picked up, what was once a welfare program handing out food stamps has turned into a giant giveaway with 1/2 or more of the people getting gov handouts. Even the tax base can’t keep up and the debt is really running on meth.
For a long while I was worried I wouldn’t be around to see the SHTF, now I’m worried I will be. I can’t do much to change anything, I worry about my kids/grandkids but realistically I know there is nothing that I can do.
A great summary, RC, things we know and things we knew even before 2016, doesn’t matter who is in the office, until the laws of gravity are changed, shit will always run downhill but now its beginning to back up. Sewers have limits/capacities, too. Even DC.
I’d say Carter was the only time things got noticeably worse and Reagan noticeably better in my memory.
As an aside, I would be interested to read a knowledgable comparison of present-day America rule with the Chinese mandarinate – I suspect there are substantial parallels.
Not a knowledgeable comparison and I’m not even a good amateur, but one thing that is sorely needed is a rectification of names. We are doing a good job of 焚書坑儒2: Academic Bugaloo
I should add, I don’t mean exactly adopting the Confucian practice, but the acknowledgement and correction of verbalistic claptrap. Not calling a spade a spade is corrosive to society.
‘Abolish The Senate’ Trends On The Left After Democrat Senator Joe Manchin Makes Pledge During Interview
We have to get rid of anything that might impede the power and influence of leftists.
I knew this was coming in louder calls as soon as it was clear that the Senate was going to stay in GOP hands and the President was going to switch to Biden.
Yup. At least we’re back to the predictable reactionary idiocy that the left has adopted as its modus operandi over the last decade.
I have had a general want of a new constitutional convention to fix some of the problems with the old, but things like that are why it would be a bad idea.
https://cdn8.openculture.com/2017/08/15212513/2nd-Bill-of-Rights.jpeg
But with more CRT.
We have to get rid of anything that might impede the power and influence of leftists.
Yes. The Feral Children of Capitol Hill demand satisfaction.
https://boiseguardian.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FINAL-Order-Re-Commencement-of-Jury-Trials-11-9-20.pdf
Buh bye speedy trials and juries of your peers!
were trials particularly speedy?
Not in the U.S. Of course, this is often per the defendant’s wishes. They can post bail and live free for a couple months or years, or at least spend some of the time in jail instead of prison (i.e., pre-trial detention) while their lawyers negotiate down the charges and/or sentence.
That was worded poorly. Jail is pre-trial detention, prison is where you go after sentencing. While the two words are dictionary synonyms, in practice the former tends to be less severe than the latter.
And usually around here jail, besides besides the above is ran by the county for more minor level/low risk/short sentences for post conviction punishment vs prisons ran by the state for longer and more serious stuff.
The Comie Virus is the gift that keeps on giving for Power hungery people. I think this has depressed me deeply this year.
Weathering the currency collapse, I need to give some more thought to.
I thought again about cashing in some stock to buy a 2020 Mustang before Ford stops making Mustangs with a proper V8. I figure I should enjoy the wealth in that stock before Biden confiscates it or causing inflation to make it worthless.
Also, for the moment, I am going to lay plans to emigrate as a search for a context that I find more congenial.
Due to some family reasons, I’m going to need to stick close to the US East Coast for a while. So, Florida or NH. I don’t see DeSantis caving to whatever Biden might try to do as part of Biden’s Lil Rona Panic Plan. I’m hopeful NH will change given how many legislators the NHLA and Reopen NH got elected.
“I’m sorry comrade, but your car is being redistributed to a more deserving owner.”
At least I’d get something from it before it gets redistributed unlike the stock I’m sitting on.
Back to a point in the OP, about the slow-rolling of Trump’s directives by both civilian and military subordinates.
It isn’t so much ideological resistance, they just don’t want anything to upset the status quo. The bureaucracy wants to maintain its own existence. Threaten that, and it reacts quite predictably – almost like there were an iron law or something on that.
That can be overcome, but it takes diligence – and that is a word I’m quite sure Trump has no familiarity with. This is why he was also no threat as a dictator despite his Mussolini-esque mannerisms. He’d have to have paid more attention than his flighty little mind could muster.
The status quo is an ideology. Fish are still in the water, even if they don’t perceive it to be.
Trust me, I have nearly 20 years of fairly close observation of DoD to speak from. The US Army is not captive to the leftist brainfarts dominant in the culture now, and the bureaucracy is just as resistant to anything that means real change. They have careers to consider first and foremost – or as the line from Risky Business puts: In times of economic uncertainty, never ever fuck with another man’s livelihood.
Pretty much. No follow through.
Trump is much more Berlusconi than Mussolini.
None of the fascists swept into power by winning a single office in isolation. The blackshirts, the Iron Guard, the Nazis, and the Falangists all gained significant beachheads in government before ousting their foes and completely taking over. Trump could barely choose his own appointees, never mind had any control over anyone not appointed, his brand of politics did not sweep the nation’s other major political offices, there was no groundswell of proto-fascists infiltrating the civil service, and he certainly had no army of paramilitary thugs harassing and intimidating anyone in government. To some extent, every single possible avenue for those things to happen was checked in way or another.
Sadly, those checks only seem to go one way anymore. The civil service and political establishment is infested with pinkos, and nobody can do much about it.
I agree. It might actually take someone who isn’t an outsider but who is willing to follow the Trump path, even if only for cynical reasons.
Just looking thru the current counts on house races still uncalled, I am guessing final numbers will be about 222-213. That is a tiny majority for the Dems. I would think Pelosi has to be sweating holding on to her seat.
CNBC just interrupted Power Lunch for remarks from “President-elect Biden” regarding the ACA. Harris gave an intro full of getting rid of the ACA is anti-woman (pregnancy will go back to being a preexisting condition) and POC’s (disproportionately impacted by Covid infections and death).
Yes, as a 50 year old male with a 58 year old wife, I need maternity coverage and want to pay for it. Along with coverage for addiction treatment and any other number of bullshit things that matter to me.
But making primary care more difficult to obtain was a fantastic feature of the ACA as well.
Not to mention contraception coverage!
Wait… Were the remarks from President Elect Biden? or Harris?
Neither. No one is the president elect yet. The electors haven’t met.
Those specific comments were from Harris’s introduction to “President-elect Biden’s remarks”
Welp, I’m off to take a walk. I’m aiming for three miles, should take about an hour. Later, folks.
Don’t take one of mine.
Well that was random
I wouldn’t take your walk, that would be stealing.
Sadly, those checks only seem to go one way anymore. The civil service and political establishment is infested with pinkos, and nobody can do much about it.
I have no doubt Trump’s sympathizers and collaborators will be rooted out. Purity of spirit is required.
? ?
One of local rag’s pro antifa reporters authored somewhat of a hit piece on Portland’s city councilor that has been the most vocal about police defunding and “reform”, rather than just burying it. Unsurprising that she is personally unpleasant. Hardest has been a grifter and a parasite for years without an honest job.
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/11/portland-city-commissioner-jo-ann-hardesty-calls-911-refuses-to-get-out-of-lyft-car-after-driver-cancels-ride.html
Also, like far too many of the city council, she’s an apartment dweller not a homeowner. After years of ripping off taxpayers and nonprofits.
Excuse me, commission and commissioner.
They pay the same taxes – it’s just included in their rent!
/read on these very pages
Yet somehow rents are never expected to increase when the property tax rate goes up.
Not fair – I’m a woman and disproportionately impacted when the patriarchy uses math facts.
It’s not the taxes, it’s the lack of ownership in a city they’re supposedly representing that points to a certain level of transience.
Hey, R.C. Thanks. This pretty much sums up where i’ve been the last week and nicely puts in words how Ive been trying to deal with it.
For starts I’ve cut way back on news/politcs consumption. In fact,I’ll skip most of the comments here and go out to the garage and work on the old car. Tracking down Brit electrical gremlims is strangely satisfying.
NOOOOooooooooo
Engage with us in our self-immolation!
“Tracking down Brit electrical gremlims is strangely satisfying.”
Have you sold your soul to Lucas, the Prince of Darkness?
I find electrical gremlins frustrating, British electrical gremlins doubly so.
One of the easiest fixes would be to simply stop awarding electors in a winner take all manner. States should be pushed to award an elector based on each congressional district and those electors would choose the two statewide electors. If there was a tie each candidate would get one of those electors.
This would at least limit the damage big population centers could do if they decided to engage in fraud. It would also make candidates really have to hustle during an election.
Of course there is no chance that either party wants to do that.
It might fix this particular issue, but it would make gerrymandering far worse, and despite the left clamoring for Republican heads about gerrymandering they are generally better at it when they get the reins, and are far more willing to use the judiciary to impose it when the Republicans have the reins.
Gerrymandering is in the hands of the state legislature. So that might stay sane for a while. It doesn’t seem to have caused problems in Maine or Nebraska so far, but that is the big worry of the ME/NE plan.
The other option, which avoids the gerrymandering problem is to appoint the electors proportionate to the vote. That would make CA fun, as the LP and Greens can probably get the 2% to get an EC vote.
And while we are at it, if gerrymandering seriously worries you, get rid of districts and make every state multi-member with single, transferrable vote. R and D would be better represented and subgroups (black dems for example) would be proportionately represented without weird districting games.
ME only has two districts, so you can’t gerrymander.
M & E?
I Know, the reps aren’t answerable to their constituents at all, but i’m at least sentimentally remiss to removing anything that would at least make them accountable to their constituents. They should represent specific geographic areas, not well i represent the people from this state, but jointly.
You have an engineer’s mind and seek to change systems to solve problems that present themselves. I contend that this is a doomed, and ultimately counterproductive response since the problems are not resulting from physical forces, but are instead deliberately created by people seeking advantage in their quest for power. I also do not intend offence when I say that I doubt anyone here is better able to craft rules designed to preserve a republic than James Madison. The problem is not the Constitution. The problem is that the people no longer live up to the Constitution, if they ever did. In other words corruption and tyrants will be with us always.
Prior attempts to solve problems of corruption gave us direct election of the Senate and the civil service system which have not improved matters.
The president is the president of the common government among the states, not the districts of the states.
OK, so for Philadelphia County – home of the great Democratic vote scam of ’20!
In 16, Hillary got 584,025, and Biden is clocking in at 573,785.
In 16, Trump got 108,748 and right now stands at 128,127.
What anomalous vote?
Thank you for supplying numbers. I appreciate when people push back against the majority here, just so we don’t get complete blind spots.
Blind Spots? Don’t have em. Never even have to do a head check. Just change lanes and don’t look back.
I’ve enacted some labor I expect to be compensated for.
I’ll get Chief of Compensation, STEVE SMITH on the line.
No good deed…
Then what’s the deal with keeping out poll watchers? Late night sneaking in ballots? Failure to comply with election laws? Possibly fraudulent stamped dates on ballots?
Trump’s lawsuit: https://cdn.donaldjtrump.com/public-files/press_assets/2020-11-09-complaint-as-filed.pdf
It all comes off shady as fuck.
Maybe that’s normal in Philly?
The numbers certainly aren’t abnormal. Just for grins, 2012…
Obama 588,806
Romney 96,467
The Dems are trending down!
Chester County is the anomalous one.
Chester County gave Biden a 17% margin of victory vs. 8% for Hillary. Probably no count shenanigans, just Ground Zero for Karens and social virtue signalers and campus registration drives.
So I received a response from my PA state rep’s office from my inquiry this morning.
The email signature is from his district office manager.
That’s something I guess. Wolf seems immune to the legislature though.
They don’t have the votes to overturn his vetoes, which means they also don’t have the votes to impeach him. The State Supreme Court is on his side.
Wolf will do what he wants.
A good question: “Since the election won’t affect the larger context of rule by the administrative state, the growth of government, a culture of safetyism and demand for government protection from previously tolerated and ordinary risks, or the urbanization of America, why get agitated about it?”
I’m not agitated, but trying to help prepare grandkids for having a good life under the new rules.
Late links?
*hurls trash can at door*
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS
This is Biden’s America.
They’re still counting comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96FY6aIKUXE
Perhaps you’d like to discuss the high points of Phil Collin’s discography instead.
I still prefer his drumming with Genesis (before they went to pop) over Brand X (even though it sounds like borrowed Bruford’s snare drum, perhaps literally, as all the pro rockers knew each other).
There’s no reason to get worked up.
In Biden America Trash Hurls YOU!
Bro, you have to have perspective.
Everyone is gone and the thread is dead.
However, I really enjoyed your thoughts and I have been really pondering how relevant all this shit really is. I think I may have voted in my last fed election.
Finally, I have been interested in some of the references to Stoicism here; I’m going to follow up on that.
This is a good strategy. I’m going to spend my time getting as dialed in as I can and helping my people do the same. No one knows wtf is gonna happen, but having competent people around you can’t hurt.
Great article and good luck, brother!